Odd, Old News: Old Jack To The Rescue In Briceland
Nuggets of old news served up once a week by David Heller, one of our local historians.
Briceland Hotel and Saloon [Photo by Jerome Baker held in the Humboldt Room of HSU Library]
In 1885 John C. Briceland of the yet-to-be-named-Ettersburg region built a house and barn on Redwood Creek on Collier’s ranch, and made the existing Ring Hotel into the Briceland Hotel. In 1889 he became the first Postmaster at the newly established Post Office and the town name Briceland became official.
The leather industry’s demand for the natural tannins found in the bark of the tan oak created a thriving local industry in the 1890’s. There was a rush to file tanbark claims and many men were employed in the woods. Briceland’s population surpassed that of Garberville by 1900, and its Fourth of July celebrations made it the social hub of Southern Humboldt for many years until most of the town burnt down in 1914 (a subject for future posts).
Wagner Tan Bark Mill [Thanks to Diane Hawk for
SAVED FROM FLOOD BY FAITHFUL DOG
Humboldt Standard, July 16, 1911
(Special to The Standard)
Briceland, June 14.—The people of the extract plant village near here had quite an exciting time the other day, when the big dam that backs up the water with which the plant is run, broke. The water came down in a wave ten feet high and swept away everything in its path. Two little children, Theodore and Dorothy Stone, aged respectively seven and four years, who were playing on the creek bank had a narrow escape from drowning, only the fact that a pile of drift split and broke the force of the torrent, saving them. As it was the little girl was washed off the creek bank but the boy immediately jumped after her and although the water was too deep for them to wade he managed to hold his sister above water until assistance in the shape of their faithful old dog, Jack. The dog seemed to realize the situation and jumping into the creek he swam out to them and prevented them from being swept away by the current, barking whenever he could get an opportunity and finally succeeding in attracting attention and getting help for the children.
Old Jack is the little girl’s constant companion and playmate and that the narrow escape of the child at that time was realized by the animal was evident a day or so afterward. The mother had taken the children in a boat and as soon as they had pushed off the dog became greatly excited, running up and down the creek and barking, until finally with a mighty leap from the high bank he plunged into the water and swam out to the receding boat. Around and around the boat he swam until hauled aboard when he immediately began caressing the children and with his head on the boy’s knees and his paws in the girl’s lap, he would not budge until the boat was landed.
Earlier Odd and Old News:
There are many more, but here are the most recent:
- “Bible” Studies at the Buhne Building in Eureka
- Justice for Garberville Cowboys in 1892
- Bootlegging in Southern Humboldt
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“May I be half the man my dog thinks I am.”
Thumbs up
The gang at the saloon are drunk by noon…
Are those 2 guys in the street about to do a pistol-pull tango?
Playing catch. I can see mitt and ball the boy on right has. Looks like 4th of July party.
Less exciting, but good news.
Thanks Mary
Yay for dogs!
Dogs will give their life for you. It’s truly sad that there are over 4000 animals per DAY(! )put to sleep in shelters. I don’t know how many are in no- kill shelters. Guys don’t like to neuter their males, and so this situation keeps expanding. Things like this need to be taught in elementary school. Younger children are more receptive to choosing a humane option, than are the grown up macho guys and their female counterparts.
Luckily in Humboldt the euthanasia rates are extremely low, and the pound does everything they can to get dogs adopted.
Other areas are not so lucky.
Has nothing to do with males not clipping their dogs. Sounds like you are making assumptions based off your wealth of ignorance! Most guys I know have theirs clipped. The problem comes from out and out ignorant people, much like yourself that find themselves experts on scenarios. When in fact you are nothing more than a PETA echo chamber. You do realize that it takes an incompetent owner of both a Male and female dog to create more dogs, if one ore both were fixed it wouldn’t be an issue, EITHER OR! [edit]
In the early 60’s a fellow by the name of Axel Erickson owned a saw mill on the site of the old Wagner Tan Bark extraction plant. The mill was bought out by Georgia Pacific Corporation, they build a plywood mill on the site. GP bought the mill and the timber rights. They soon discovered that they could ship the timber to their other mills, so they closed the plywood plant in Briceland. Up until that point Briceland was a happening town. They had a grocery store, a repair garage, a gas station, a post office, a bar and grill, a county road repair yard, and many houses for the mill workers.
It was devastating to the town when the mill closed.
The Erickson family invested the money from the mill and started helicopter logging in Oregon. They were the ones that used the now famous Erickson Sky Cranes that are widely used on wildfire throughout the world. It all started in dinky little Briceland town.
My folks owned the bar and grill and would cash the payroll checks for the mill workers who would spend most of Friday and Saturday nights in the bar and grill eating, drinking and playing the many arcade games that were there. Fun times.
My folks closed the bar after the mill closed and Briceland became the semi-ghost town that is today.
There were many cull logs and wood trash that collected below the mill pond in Redwood Creek. I would spend my spare time walking around on the log jam in the creek with a willow stick and a short line with a fish-hook baited with grasshoppers. The water in the log jam was filled with trout because the fish hawks, coons, and otters couldn’t catch them in the jam, but they were suckers for my Grasshopper bait. The salmon didn’t seem to have any trouble swimming through the jam to the spawning grounds. I guess that the statute of limitations might have to apply if I was to admit that the salmon were also pretty tasty.
David Heller sure knows how the dig up my past.
David Heller corrected me on the location of the Wagner plant. It was actually east of Briceland. The mills that I remember where all west of Briceland on the Schroeder property. Different location… I never knew that. Hearsay is not always the best source of history. Thanks for the correction David.
I still enjoyed your story no matter where it was.
More on Axel Erickson’s son Jack ( who looks like his dad) and his dive into helicopter logging. His dad told him to be successful you need to always stick with what you know. He knew how to fly a helicopter and he knew how to log. So he started helicopter logging.
Link: https://pamplinmedia.com/msp/129-news/404388-301842-jack-erickson-builds-extraordinary-life-around-two-passions-aircraft-and-logging
But don’t stop commenting, you bring history posts to life with your additions Ernie… where would we be without those ‘who were there’ commenting on topics that I have merely studied! “David Heller sure knows how the dig up my past”— I am still working on digging out the memories of a young Branscomb lad who delivered milk in the early morn–and what he saw– 🙂 …
Where in the current town of Briceland would the old hotel be located?
It was on the north side of the Shelter Cove road a few lots before Orchard splits off to the right (when coming from the east)…
There are some old foundations right after orchard splits to the right headed west through briceland. I’ve always wondered what was there…
I am not certain if you are talking about the N. side of Orchard, or those smaller concrete foundations on the left side of Orchard at the junction of the road? If the latter, I have been told that they were mostly housing for the logging community, and were burnt down by locals during the “discouraging hippies from living in Briceland era” .
The old Hotel wouldn’t have had a concrete foundation.
Kym,
Thank you for creating the space for these historic vignettes.
David,
Please keep them coming! I savor them…actually, I save them for a time when I can savor them, like a rich chocolate, to eat up slowly, with the kindest commentary included like a bit of port to compliment it.
Ernie,
You’re the port that brings all the subtleties of these stories to a rich and satisfying read.
And a dog, named Jack saving children!
Can’t think of a better way to start off a Sunday morning in bed with a cuppa.
I was born in Scotia 1946, nearest hospital to Briceland, where my folks owned the store; we left about 1952. One morning my mom noticed ash on the water barrel on the back porch; it turned out that the mill (which I remember as west of town) had burnt down. What I was told was that there wasn’t enough timber available nearby of a size for cutting to justify rebuilding the mill, so it wasn’t. It was a hardscrabble place, and after WWII several young men who had been in the service and seen the outside world didn’t come back, so between the two the town withered away.